‘So Help Me Todd’ Creator Reacts To Series Cancellation: “Best Professional Experience Of My Life”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Podcast ad revenue in the U.S. — after seven years of double-digit growth — hit a slowdown in 2023, with overall spending increasing 5% to $1.93 billion, according to a new report. The tepid growth in podcast ad spending last year came amid a “challenging advertising climate” that disproportionately affected mid-tier companies, according to research conducted by PwC for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor An Apple commercial for the new iPad Pro tablet showing an industrial press literally crushing a TV, musical instruments, books and more ignited an angry backlash among many in Hollywood and other creative industries. The ad, titled “Crush!”, shows an array of various objects — including a record player, a piano, a guitar, an old TV set, cameras, a typewriter, books, paint cans and a classic arcade game machine — getting compressed into (voila!) the new iPad Pro.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Jonathan Bailey was so blown away by “Heartstopper” that he just knew he had to be on the show. “Like so many people, I watched the first [season] and thought it was one of the biggest, most beautiful gifts to so many people, and I wish I had that growing up,” the “Fellow Travelers” and “Bridgerton” star told me at the Met Gala Monday night.

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Universal Television has acquired the rights to Jana Monroe’s memoir Hearts of Darkness: Serial Killers, The Behavioral Science Unit, And My Life As a Woman In The FBI to develop into a series. Winner filmmaker Susanna Fogel and Julia Ruchman (The Walking Dead) will both write and executive produce, with Fogel serving as director. Monroe and Rain Productions will also executive produce.

Jar Jar Binks. Invoke the name to any hardcore Star Wars fan and then step back to see the explosion. No one is neutral.

Unfortunately, Nick Viall and Natalie Joy didn’t get to enjoy the honeymoon of their dreams!

Kelly Rowland and Ciara are hitting the red carpet!

Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament is back. While studios during Covid wildly embraced the theatrical day-and-date model when cinemas were closed, they soon realized there’s nothing more profitable than a theatrical release and the downstreams that come with it. If anything, theatrical is the advertisement for a movie’s longevity in subsequent home entertainment windows. Entering the conversation in 2023 were the streamers, such as Apple, who have also realized the necessity of theatrical to eventize their movies. The financial data pulled together here for Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament is culled by seasoned and trusted sources.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Oprah Winfrey is off the board of WeightWatchers — but she’s continuing to work with the company as part of her efforts to change the cultural conversation about weight. Winfrey will host “Making The Shift: A New Way to Think About Weight,” a three-hour event on Thursday, May 9, from 6-9 p.m.

Alexia Nepola is speaking out.

NCIS: Hawai’i cast members and co-creators are digesting the news that the series will not return for a fourth season following its cancellation by CBS this afternoon.

The sold-out, twice-extended Off Broadway comedy Oh, Mary! will transfer to Broadway this summer, producers announced today.

The CSI franchise’s return to CBS is coming to an end as CBS on Friday opted not to renew for a fourth season.

In the late 1990s Joker writer-director Todd Phillips, then applying his trade as an underground documentary filmmaker shot a non-fiction project titled Frat House, which nabbed the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance before being promptly acquired by HBO Films. 

challenged aspects of their convictions and sentences in a federal appeals court.The Chrisleys rose to fame with their show “Chrisley Knows Best,” which chronicled the exploits of their tight-knit family. But prosecutors said they engaged in an extensive bank fraud scheme and hid their earnings from tax authorities while showcasing their extravagant lifestyle.Peter Tarantino, an accountant they hired, also is serving time in prison.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Both “So Help Me Todd” and “CSI: Vegas” have been canceled at CBS, Variety has learned. “So Help Me Todd” is currently airing its second season at the broadcaster, while “CSI: Vegas” is airing its third. Both shows are scheduled to air their season finales in May, which will now serve as series finales.

UPDATED with more details: Financier and producer Participant is shuttering after 20 years. Founder Jeff Skoll alerted staff at 10:30 a.m. PT on Tuesday, Deadline has confirmed.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Max Cutler sold Parcast Studios, his scripted-audio entertainment start-up, to Spotify in 2019 under a deal in which Spotify ultimately paid nearly $90 million. Cutler went on to become Spotify’s VP, head of talk creator content and partnerships — inking exclusive licensing deals with podcasters including Alex Cooper, Emma Chamberlain and Markiplier, and managing the company’s partnership with “The Joe Rogan Experience” — before exiting last year. Now Cutler is back in the game with the launch of Pave Studios.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotter, which provides capital, services and software aimed at helping creators and brands grow their online businesses, hired former Adobe Systems and Microsoft exec Ivo Manolov as chief technology officer. In the CTO role, Manolov will be responsible for leading all technology with a focus on launching Spotter’s suite of AI-powered software tailored to YouTubers.

What started off as a creative fantasy story unintentionally became hyperrealistic in Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij’s hit limited series A Murder at the End of the World.